Учебное пособие для студентов 1 курса направлений

BOND OF BROTHERLY HATE

Jealousy between brothers and sisters is very often unavoidable, especially when a new baby is born into the family.
Mary, fifteen months old, would brush her newborn brother's head so hard that she almost drew blood. Three-year-old Bobby sang nursery rhymes and gave four-month-old Eliza's cradle such a hard push that she fell out on several occasions.
Sibling rivalry can often be caused by one child feeling, rightly or wrongly, that the parents prefer the other child or children in the family to them. An eight-year-old girl started having asthma attacks because she felt her mother was devoting more time and attention to her two younger sisters, aged five and seven.
A teenage boy of religious parents dropped out and adopted a "hippie" lifestyle because he believed his parents preferred his younger sister.
According to research, the arrival of a new baby causes most trouble in families where the mother is particularly close to an elder daughter. But where the child has a close relationship with the father, there is usually far less conflict after the new birth. Temperament, too, is important. Children who are irritable or difficult react most strongly to the birth of a sibling.
Not surprisingly it is often when mothers are attending to the new baby that siblings play up. Rosie Summers recalls: "Literally, no sooner had I started to feed the baby than Lisa, then two, would announce that she wanted a drink or would go into another room and start dropping things. It was extremely irritating."
What families forget is that not only is sibling rivalry normal, it can also have a positive side. It is important to remember Freud's view that if you cannot hate you cannot love. In most families, sibling rivalry and sibling affection are two sides of the same coin. A mother of two boys aged sixteen and ten has this experience: "My kids will be at each other's throats, complaining to me about what the other has done or has got. Yet if someone is unpleasant to one, or if either hurts himself, nobody could be more caring or concerned than the other."


True or false?

1. 
   When a new baby is born into a family, the firstborn often does harm to his younger brother or sister, on purpose or not.
   
2. 
   Children are sometimes right felling that the parents prefer the other child or children to them.
   
3. 
   Children don’t usually expose (show) their sufferings when they feel jealous towards their younger brothers or sisters.
   
4. 
   A close relationship with one of the parents often influences the firstborn’s attitude to the new baby.
   
5. 
   Sibling rivalry is quite normal.
   
6. 
   Children can be very caring and concerned about their brothers’ or sisters’ problems, in spite of the rivalry between them.
   

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